Nationals pick two shortstops, vaunted high school pitcher

Here's a quick recap of the players the Nationals drafted in rounds three through five today:

THIRD ROUNDRick Hague, SS, Rice 6-2, 190. ... Hit .340 with a .407 and a .591 slugging percentage. ... From Spring, Texas, same hometown as Josh Beckett. ... Played on the U.S. National Team this summer.

FOURTH ROUNDA.J. Cole, RHP, Oviedo High in Florida: ... 6-0, 0.93 ERA this season. ... fastball in the mid-90s. ... He was also regarded as a potential first-round talent and has a commitment to play for Miami in college. The Nationals were aggressive in making this pick. ... All of this information came from this Orlando Sentinel blog post.

That's probably "used-to-be" shortstops. In a year said to be weak in position players, it's a good strategy to draft the best hitters, because they project more reliably, or the best defenders, because you can move a ss to another position and get still decent defense.

http://natsinsider.blogspot.com/
2. Sammy Solis, LHP, University of San Diego
Solis is a classic left-hander in that he doesn't have dominating "stuff" but he seems to get by with pitching guile. After missing most of 2009 with a herniated disc, Solis came back strong this season for the Toreros, going 9-2 with a 3.42 ERA. A 6-foot-5 native of suburban Phoenix, Solis throws his fastball around 90 mph and has a sharp-breaking curve/slider hybrid. Nationals front office executives, including Mike Rizzo and Bob Boone, saw him pitch in person two weeks ago while the Nats were playing in San Diego and came away impressed.